Joan Lui | |
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Italian theatrical release poster by Renato Casaro
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Directed by | Adriano Celentano |
Produced by | Mario & Vittorio Cecchi Gori |
Written by | Adriano Celentano |
Starring |
Adriano Celentano Claudia Mori Federica Moro |
Music by | Adriano Celentano Pinuccio Pierazzoli Ronny Jackson Gino Santercole |
Cinematography | Alfio Contini |
Edited by | Adriano Celentano |
Release date
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1985 |
Running time
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163 min 133 min (cut edition) 125 min (Home Video cut) |
Country | Italy |
Language | Italian |
Joan Lui (also known as Joan Lui - Ma un giorno nel paese arrivo io di lunedì) is a 1985 Italian musical-comedy film written, directed and starred by Adriano Celentano. It is the last of the four films written and directed by Celentano.
Title character Joan Lui is a singer who has come from another world to condemn the hypocrisy and atrocities of the Western culture. When he arrives in Italy, he seeks to create a musical group composed of young beginners to better spread his message. After having exposed the deception of a major musical producer, Joan Lui disappears into thin air. Meanwhile, the world is plunged into a terrible apocalypse.
The film was also the center of a dispute between Mario and Vittorio Cecchi Gori and Celentano as the producers decided, a month after the first release, to replace the original cut with another version, with a different editing and lasting 30 minutes less.
The film was a box office bomb, grossing 7.3 billion lire at the Italian box office in spite of a budget of about 20 billion lire.
The film also received generally bad reviews. Morando Morandini described it as "an enormous music video based on visual shock, jam-packed with music, with some monumental sets and elaborate editing. A true festival of kitsch also on an ideological level". According to Paolo Mereghetti the film, "a personal reading of Christianity in musicals", was "a personal delusion of omnipotence", "a mock-apocalyptic madness that is just able to list the worst clichés of indifference".